Happy Hollow Homestead

Saturday, July 18, 2015

I started this post yesterday. It was originally titled Dread. I was selling my oldest baby goats and was a little anxious and unsure how I would feel handing my babies over to a complete stranger hence the title Dread so I decided not to post because it was a bunch of anxious mumbo jumbo anyway..........
Well, Kenny showed up at 6 as planned. I was pleased to find out he was a like minded person. He also has 20 acres of land which is amazing. 2 acres fenced for the goats. He rescued another goat from being eaten which is a plus. Anyways we talked FOREVER about homesteading goals, land, the town he lives in and then it came time to say goodbye. I told them both bye went in the house fought off tears, came back out and Kenny was still here. Finally I held Lady while the hubs grabs the babes and snotfest commenced. I was a blubbering bawling idiot! Poor Kenny said he was so sorry and felt terrible since I couldn't quit crying. Several times throughout the evening I would picture my little boyfriends (that's what I named the boy goat) face and the water works would happen. I don't know if me being a middle aged female has anything to do with my extreme attachment to my babies. I don't know if everyone that raises critters gets as attached to them as I do. I don't know why I mourn them leaving. The only thing I do know is today, I'm okay, I still miss their sweet faces but I got a gallon of milk from their ma so it's time to make some cheese :))))))

Saturday, July 11, 2015

Some of my sweet blog buddies were concerned if I was okay, well I am :)))) I've been busy trying to stay afloat with all the rain/flooding we have had. I have been mucking wheel barrows of mud just to get my animals areas dry and sanitary and then it would rain AGAIN. I'm hoping we stay dry for awhile. Today I need to muck the barn. Last time I posted I had three goats well this year both my girls had twins! So I have SEVEN goats total right now. My oldest buckling is for sale and has recently become a maniac. If he doesn't sell soon I think I'm going to add goat to my diet :)) I love that little booger to death but he's gone NUTS!!!! I haven't saved any milk yet this year. With all the new additions and the rain it's been a three ring muddy circus. I'm hoping to get into a better routine once the babies are gone.

I've found a bounty of wild plums at my in laws. I made jelly and saved some seeds. I hope to have my own little thicket here soon. I also found a bee tree on their place. I haven't had any luck trapping those bees yet. The first swarm was so huge my father in law said my box wouldn't have held it. I'm going to try a persuade them to let me put my hive on their property and bait it. Eventually it would be awesome to have my apiary at their place. Its a bee paradise and it's just a 45 minute drive

My chickens have destroyed my strawberry patch again. I got ZERO berries this year. My garden was a bust because of the rain. I have been cleaning it up and getting ready to plant a Fall garden. I hope it's bountiful.

Here's my babies Lady had a boy and a girl April 21st And Darcy had two boys June 20th

Monday, October 13, 2014

I have been such a bad blogger, I don't even know how I got new followers but WELCOME! With Fall/Winter here I might have more time to post :)))

Where to start. Well we had some bad over the Summer. Remember my "free range" bunnies that my pet bunny Ellie had. First off those little ones dug several holes under the fence to get out of the chicken pen so after two years of living free willy nilly with the chickens Miss Ellie went missing :/ She either got out (thanks to her kids) or something got in (thanks to her kids) and took her. I miss seeing her everyday :( Shortly after that one of her kids showed up paralyzed and then another one was paralyzed. We put them down since they weren't able to move and after much Googling I've come up with the conclusion that they had E. cuniculi. I really enjoyed seeing them running all over the yard, playing in the barn, sitting on the back porch, and circling my feet when it was time for food. I won't ever let another bun be on the ground and I am lucky my meat rabbits weren't affected by the disease.

My female goat Lady came to me one day limping. When the hubs came home we got her on the stand and he found a thumb tack in her hoof. I guess I had dropped one when I was putting up fly tape. That hole became infected and her limp got worse. I went to the feed store and bought Kopertox. We used it on her hoof everyday for about a week and she healed up. I was super stressed about that too but VERY thankful that she is okay :)

Bub my goat buck is triple stinky this year. I guess since I have 2 females he's got to try harder. I can smell him on my back porch, it's really foul :p

We have been eating more rabbit. Our neighbor smoked one for us and we had bbq sliders. I cooked one and shredded the meat for rabbit tacos. That was pretty good too. My next meal will be rabbit chili. I make a white chili with chicken and I'm going to substitute rabbit. I can't wait to try it. I might not tell the kids and see if they notice a difference, lol! My fur tanning is going better. I can't say it's perfect yet, but I did get a compliment from my dad, so it's a little better and I'm ready to make my fur purse! With the price of meat at the store and the unknowns of that meat. I'm very thankful and grateful for my rabbits :))))

The hubs traded a truck for a fifth wheel. I talked him into not selling it so we can have it for an emergency. It was a hunting trailer and I'm in the process of cleaning it up a bit. I'm going to keep it masculine for resale but cleaner so if it needs to be home during a power outage it will be cozy :) I will post pics of my progress soon. So far I've only painted the ceiling. There is a reason humans don't look up all the time. It hurts!!!!!!

The last few weeks most of us (me included) have been sick with some weird gastrointestinal/respiratory virus. It has hung around for weeks. We are all just now starting to feel better. With all the crazy sickness out in the world, getting sick is scary.

Reading this makes me wonder what I actually do everyday besides stress and worry. It doesn't sound like I'm very busy but I am. Tonight I'm going to my first ever bee club meeting. I need to reconnect with my friends so I will be able to get bee's this Spring.

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

My computer is on the fritz and as usual I really don't have time to mess with it :/ So I have been reading blogs when I have the patience but haven't been commenting because my patience usually runs out, lol!!!

The little one started school last week. I'm still not used to the alarm, it's loud. I prefer waking up on my own. On the bright side I only have 172 more days of screeching :/ My older daughters start school tomorrow. Both will be in High School and one will graduate. Where did the time go??? My birthday is also coming up (Friday) and I turn the big 40...................Where did my youth go??? I still feel like a kid and forty always seemed so OLD!

Our weather this year was so WEIRD! It was strangely Fall like for a few weeks but it seems Summer finally found us. This is also the first year that I haven't wanted a storm cellar (we had zero tornados) but a ton of earthquakes :/ The bugs, oh man the bugs this year are unreal! Flies have taken over my barnyard, it's a constant battle to keep everything as clean as possible but they still find something that interests them. This is the first year we have had aphids in the garden and also those damn blister beetles. They are working on my tomato plants again as I type :/

Our peach harvest this year wasn't as great as last year but I did make nine pints of yummy jam :)

My pet bunny that ran around the chicken yard went missing about a week ago. She was two years old and the first bunny ever born here, I miss her :(

My chickens have hatched out babies again :/ So far there is only one. I wasn't even sure the eggs were fertile, well they were lol! Chicken count=who knows!!!

Bub my goat buck is stinkin' up to high heaven. We were going to trim his hooves on Friday but got lazy and he went into rut the next day. Lesson learned there, lol!

I found an amazing deal at the feed store. Seed packs were 10 for a $1!!! I got 40 packs of seed for $4 some are heirloom. One pack retailed for $4, so I was pleased with this find!!!!!
My last visit to the grocery store renewed my desire to grow as much of our food as possible. Meat is outrageous and the quality of everything is poor!

Tomorrow I'm gardening all day, the little one has decided to ride the bus home from school which gives me the whole day to get things done. I hope she likes riding the bus. This might be the year I actually get my crap together!!!!

Friday, August 8, 2014

I found the missing blister beetles.......
They have moved on to my big garden and are doing work on my tomatoes! It only took them two days to demolish the volunteer tomato plant in the cantaloupe patch. I squirted a couple with wasp spray, not sure if it killed them. I despise pesticides and have worked really hard not to use them but I'm not losing my tomato's to these guys. So this evening, against my own gardening rules, the bugs will die. I hate this, but I really love my tomato's :(

Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Since I was a wee bit skittish of getting blisters on my hands. I had a great plan to grab the top of the plant with tongs, quickly snip the bottom of the plant with scissors, fling it on the ground and the stomp the daylights out of the bugs with my boots. So boots on, tongs and scissors in hand I walk over to the plant.........
I wouldn't call it a plant anymore, it's all stems no leaves and no bugs. They ate their fill last night and moved on. Hopefully not to the cantaloupe plant............
In other news. I'm obsessed with getting my rabbit furs done right. I had two that I did a little different, they didn't stink like crap and turned out pretty good. Then I had four more that I did my old way, well they stunk like crap and the fur slipped again, total waste of time. So today I watched this skinny Cajun fellow on YouTube do about twenty different furs. They turned out pretty good, so in a couple weeks when we butcher buns again, I'm trying it his way. I hope it works out because I'm obsessed with figuring this out!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Carolyn the bug guru answered this on FB! It's a blister beetle. Those of you that have them don't squish them they will give you blisters. According to Carolyn they demolish tomato plants quickly. When I googled blister beetles it says they eat bee's and grasshoppers too. They are covering this plant. I would say there is one per leaf so I am going to attempt to murder the whole lot of them in the morning :)

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About Me

I have been obsessed with self reliance for a long time. At the beginning of my obsession we lived in a crowded little neighborhood in town. It took a year and a half to find our new house which was well worth the wait! And so begins the laborous journey to the ultimate goal of having my happy little farm.